Norma Cenva/XD
Norma Cenva was the real designer of Guild Ships. She was Aurelius Venport's mistress, and gave him her ship's designs, along with five children. Early life Norma Cenva was considered a failure by her mother, Zufa Cenva, because she was born a malformed dwarf. This was partially due to the strange chemicals on Rossak, the same reason why Sorceresses like her mother were so powerful. Norma Cenva was almost pitied by her mother while the former lived on Rossak. However, her adoptive father (and future husband) Aurelius Venport helped her continue her fascination and meddling with higher-order mathematics arranging for her to become an assistant to Tio Holtzman. Career Realizing her genius, famous Poritrin scientist Tio Holtzman invited her to be his assistant in 203 B.G. When Norma became an assistant to Savant Tio Holtzman she first developed the portable scrambler generator (which emitted a powerful blast of energy which scrambled the gel circuitry of thinking machines), a concept developed from the scrambler web technology that Tio Holtzman had first designed and used. She thought of the portable scrambler generator invention as her contribution to the Butlerian Jihad war effort. She also cared little that Holtzman took credit for much of her work. Nevertheless, her innovations would prove indispensable to humanity in the war against the thinking machines known as the Butlerian Jihad. Next, she used the Holtzman effect to invent a suspensor, which evolved into the glowglobe, the staple light source used throughout the Known Universe. Later, as she stopped creating new inventions for Lord Niko Bludd to benefit from, he and Savant Tio Holtzman essentially disowned Norma. They did this in return for a portion of the glowglobe profits that Aurelius Venport procured by 'illegally' selling and marketing the glowglobe invention. This action had disregarded the contract that Norma had signed to become an assistant of the Savant, which stated that all technologies developed under the guidance of Tio Holtzman were owned by Lord Niko Bludd. As an independent scientist Norma then continued her work on spacefolders which had prevented her from creating any more inventions under the service of Tio Holtzman. She spent a great deal of her life conceiving, designing and testing the spacefolder idea. Unfortunately, her first prototype was taken from her by Lord Niko Bludd, although Aurelius Venport's co-founder of VenKee Enterprises, Tuk Keedair took the spacefolder with a ship-load of Poritrin slaves to Arrakis, where some of them evolved into the Fremen. Reborn life While on a spaceflight, the Titan Xerxes captured her and tortured her for hours while many neo-cymeks watched. The event triggered latent mental powers, and caused her soostone pendant to fuse with her. The ultimate result was that she gained amazing powers to control her molecular structure and utilize formidable new prescient abilities. With just a thought she killed Xerxes and the neo-cymeks and then transformed her body from an unappealing dwarf-like being into a woman of great elegance and beauty. Reunion with Zufa Cenva Norma then went to the planet known as Kolhar where she summoned her mother, the supreme sorceress of the Jihad, Zufa Cenva. Her mother realized she had made a mistake in abandoning her child before and redoubled her efforts to help Norma. Aurelius Venport was also invited and together the three set about transforming Kolhar into the first Junction, a massive construction yard to build ships with Holtzman engines. It was during this time that Aurelius and Norma finally consummated their love. The pair eventually produced four children, of which only Adrien had his father's business acumen. The space travel problem After many years, Norma still couldn't find a way to fold space safely. One out of every ten flights was lost due to this reason. Because a pilot had no way of knowing exactly where a space folding ship was likely to appear, ships often appeared in the middle of suns to burn or crashing into planets without enough time for a pilot to react. In the years between her husband had died and Adrien had taken over. She first contemplated using computers with lightning fast reflexes, but when the Jihad discovered this they insisted on their complete destruction. Norma subsequently devoted all her efforts into finding a solution and consumed ever increasing amounts of melange that gave her prescience and helped her think and concentrate better. During the final years of the Jihad, Norma noticed slight deformations on her perfect body, like pinkish patches of skin, which she then would heal with a mind gesture. They however persisted until she finally decided to have a medical check, to learn they were allergic reactions to melange overconsumption. Norma however was very disappointed about the starship losses of the Great Purge: a percentage of whole ships would simply perish after each spacefolding jump, and she could not stop seeking for an answer. As first Navigator Against the doctor's suggestion, she decided to give an answer to the navigational problem once and for all. She filled her room with extravagant portions of melange in gas form. While consuming melange, she had an epiphany. Her unique talents, combined with the power of the spice melange, helped her realize the potential for carefully screened and trained humans to fold space safely. When the experience finished, she saw that her body was tragically deformed, resembling her original dwarfish shape, only with an even larger head. For some reason she decided not to revert to her previous form, considering it now an unnecessary expenditure of energy. The whole physical journey to beauty seemed shallow to her, infinitely insignificant. She realized that for one to obtain such levels of prescience would need full spice immersion, total exposure and complete dependence. Her crews constructed an airtight clearplaz chamber where she would breathe gas form melange, without food and water. Her discovery and adoption of such a practice caused not only her own irrevocable transformation into the first navigator, but also laid down the foundations of what would become the Spacing Guild. Existence after creation of Spacing Guild While remaining sealed in her spice chamber, her body continued to transform, even to the extent that her body no longer existed and she remained nothing less than a disembodied consciousness in a clearplaz globe. This consciousness came to be known as the Oracle of Infinity. As the Oracle, Cenva took on the role of the protector of the Spacing Guild, especially the Navigators. During the time of the Empire, Navigators were seen bringing their Clearplaz chambers around a monument on the planet Junction complex dedicated to her. During the time of the Kralizec Thousands of years later, as the threat of the Thinking Machines arose again during the time of Hunters of Dune, the Oracle/Cenva is again seen trying to protect humanity against Omnius and the Machines. Through prescience, she realizes that the super-human Kwisatch Haderach is on the No-ship, the Ithaca. She helps the ship, piloted by a ghola of Duncan Idaho (gholas), escape from an alternate universe, where Idaho has inadvertantly stranded the vessel. But she then loses track of the Ithaca, as Idaho sends the ship into fold-space, without warning or charting course, as he does not know that the Oracle is trying to help the Itahaca's plight. Three years after that, Navigator Edric of the Guild, calls upon the Oracle to come to an out in space meeting that he has arranged, asking her advice on the Spice shortage, brought on by the monopoly of melange by the combined Bene Gesserit/Honored Matres group, the New Sisterhood. At that time, the Oracle states tells Edric that although the Spice shortage is a legitimate concern, that finding the ultimate and new Kwitsatch Haderach before the beginning of Kralizec, the great battle at the end of the age, is her paramount concern. She leaves the meeting abruptly. Twenty years later, as the Kralizec is beginning, under the nefarious influence of secretly machine-led Face Dancers, the Guild fractures as the Administrator branch of the Guild decides to kill and eliminate all Navigators. Simultaneously, the New Sisterhood rallies humanity to fight the vast armada fleet of Thinking Machines that Omnius has unleashed on humanity. The Ithaca is captured by the Thinking Machines. As the events of Sandworms of Dune (novel) progress on Synchrony, capital of the Machine Empire, Cenva appears in the main room of the conflict between the now revealed Kwitsatz Haderach, Duncan Idaho; and Omnius, who believes that humanity will soon be destroyed, and Idaho and friends soon be killed. The Oracle, through great power, however, banishes Omnius to the alternate universe, ridding humanity of the Thinking Machine ruler once and for all. She then summons the Guild Navigators to Synchrony, to transport the now united humanity and thinking machine remnants towards their new cooperative age. Other Inventions Other inventions from Norma Cenva include glowglobes and suspensors. Appearances * God Emperor of Dune Cenva, Norma Cenva, Norma Cenva Category:Spacing Guild